KSLTA cancels legend Bjorn Borg’s felicitation ceremony in Bengaluru without citing reason

PTI, Feb 23, 2023, 9:07 AM IST

The Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association, which had organised a ceremony to felicitate tennis legend Bjorn Borg on Tuesday, cancelled the event without citing any reason. A KSLTA official claimed that the ace tennis player was busy watching his son Leo Borg’s match with Taiwanese player Hsu Yu Hsiou and hence it was ‘put on hold’.

However, some reports claimed that Borg, who won 11 Grand Slam titles in his career, was upset with the delay in arrival of Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai at the venue. Bommai was supposed to attend the event at 10.30 am, according to the schedule. The Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) had said in the daily schedule of the programme that Bommai will only interact with Borg and another legendary tennis player from India Vijay Amritraj. Bommai was late by about an hour. The KSLTA official whom PTI spoke to said, ”Borg was not unhappy. He was enjoying his son’s match. We did plan his felicitation but he was busy watching the match.” An official from the CMO said there was no official programme of Bommai felicitating Borg or Amritraj. ”There was no official programme of felicitating the players but once the CM goes to any event, some events like felicitation is added there, which is common,” the official pointed out.

He also added that Bommai got delayed due to an event of launching ‘Ambaari Utsav’ air-conditioned buses of KSRTC at Vidhana Soudha. Borg and Amritraj were in Bengaluru in connection with the Bengaluru Open tennis tournament on the KSLTA premises.